[Miscellaneous]

Following password entry it goes through the booting procedure until the ‘bar’ reaches approx 90% and freezes. (Although I do have cursor control).

I have tried starting in safe mode which it appears to do until it asks for PW again, following which it begins booting so far and stops.

I have tried resetting the SMC (the charging wasn’t reading/performing correctly)

I’ve tried reinstalling OS from recovery mode.

I’m beginning to think it’s a hardware issue?

TIA

[riverrock]

So sounds like you've already been through most of these : https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8185987 https://www.macissues.com/2014/12/17/a- ... safe-mode/

Could be a hard disk issue, although I doubt you'd have been able to re install using recovery mode then.

[PaulB]

There's a recovery mode that does a comprehensive check (more so than the Opt-D (or is it Opt-R)) but I'm damned if I can remember the combination of keystrokes to initiate it.

This iMac needed a new fusion drive (well, the non-SD bit.)

Edited to add.... it is Opt-D but there are different screens/versions depending on how old your mac is.

[cjrpaterson]

Try Hardware Test (pre-2013 MacBook) or Apple Diagnostics (post-2013).

[Miscellaneous]

Many thanks guys.

Tried all in vain.

Ironically I type this on the machine which has opened Safari as part of the dignostics test, which only highlighted a battery needing replaced soon.

When trying to connect to Apple from the diagnostics screen it fails to connect.

[Lindsayp]

I had a similar issue with my 2009 MBPro, in fact its happened twice over the years, both times down to hard disk corruption. The first time I booked a Genius session in an Apple store and they reformatted the hard disk and reloaded the OS, from a connection to the Genius' machine. The second time I did the same myself but I was able to boot from the DVD drive, reformat the HD then reload the OS from the DVD.
Hopefully that is of some use?

[PaulB]

You don’t need a dvd to reinstall the OS. You can re install either the version that came with the machine or the latest available I’ve the internet - even from a complete reformatted disk. I’ve just done this today.

[stevelup]

Misc, when you did the OS re-installation, did you actually wipe the drive first?

If not, do this...

1) Boot into recovery mode
2) Instead of proceeding with the OS installation, click on the Tools menu and choose Disk Utility
3) Click on your drive and erase it. Choose 'Mac OS Journaled (Case Insensitive)' as the format
4) Quit Disk Utility
5) Run the installer again

If you didn't do this, then your new install was just done over the top of the old one which nicely preserves all your files, possibly including whatever it is that borked the machine in the first place.

[Miscellaneous]

Thanks again folks.

I was reluctant to do a clean install as I haven’t been as diligent as I should have been with backing up.

The machine is presently restoring from Time Machine, which will hopefully limit the loss and resolve the issue.

Cheers

[stevelup]

[Miscellaneous]

Thanks again for the input, chaps.

Machine now back up and running having restored it from a rather older backup than I even imagined.

Potentially some interesting negotiations ahead with little documentation to support my stance.

Never mind, on the plus side I have a much cleaner Mac.

It does make me a little more mindful of the 'grating' noise the Time Capsule has bee making over these last few weeks. Had I not had it to fall back on it would have been a very much cleaner machine!!

[stevelup]

It’s too late now but you could have copied stuff to a usb stick whilst in the recovery system.

[Miscellaneous]

It’s too late now but you could have copied stuff to a usb stick whilst in the recovery system.

Now you tell me!

It's interesting how important what's lost becomes only when lost.

[Colonel Panic]

In my book, you can never have enough backups; my backup routine is as follows ...

98% of my user files (except photos) kept on DropBox
An hourly Time Machine backup of everything - Time Capsule in a separate building
An automated nightly (bootable, SuperDuper!) backup of everything on to an external HDD (hanging down behind the desk)
A manual monthly (bootable, SuperDuper!) backup of everything on to a second external HDD (kept in a different building)

I have contemplated also using something like https://www.backblaze.com but it is perhaps overkill considering the above?

[Miscellaneous]

I'm wondering if a more apt pseudonym may be Colonel Paranoid?